Cat Burgler
by HelenaKyle
Summary: Helena has some fun. Barbara's not amused.


"Huntress, there's been a robbery downtown." Oracle's voice spoke in the brunette's ear as she was studying the prize in her hands. "I'm on it." She replied despite the fact that Oracle hadn't said specifically where the robbery had been. She didn't have to, Huntress already knew. She'd been the robber, or cat burglar as she preferred to be called, after all.

It had been a random decision. She was tired of being the good guy all the time. It wasn't like she really got anything out of it. She could kick ass just as well from the other side, so that wasn't a plus. At least on the 'dark side' she got to have some fun. She held up the silver and diamonds so that the streetlight reflected off of them. Look at that, she got pretties being the bad guy, too.

"Don't you want to know where it is?" Oracle's voice held a slight hint of worry, that wouldn't be heard by most. But Huntress spent most of her time listening to Oracle and the different tones were obvious to her even when there was an attempt to hide them. "Oh, right." Huntress replied almost certain the smirk could be heard in her voice. "Where is it?" She added dutifully, picturing the expression on Oracle's face as she waited to hear the location, which coincidentally enough was where she'd just been. "I'm on it." She repeated, heading that way because Oracle could and would track her, and making it look like she was checking it out. But, of course the 'bad guys' had gotten away. She headed back to the Clocktower after.

Oracle was waiting as expected. "Sorry you didn't get to kick any bad guy ass." She smirked after looking Huntress over. "Not an issue." Huntress replied. "Really not an issue." She dropped a necklace onto Oracle's lap. It was obviously more than Huntress could afford with her bar tending job and complete refusal of Wayne money. "I picked this up for you." She watched as Barbara studied the necklace and then frowned. "Helena..."

"I know, your birthday isn't for another month, but what can I say?" Helena smirked, knowing full well that wasn't what Barbara had been about to say. "It was no trouble at all." She continued. "In and out like that." She snapped her fingers to show how quick and easy the heist had been. Barbara only frowned more. "Why did you do this?"

"Teen rebellion?"

"You're twenty-five."

"Second childhood rebellion?"

Clearly Barbara wasn't buying that either. "We're supposed to thwart crime, Helena, not to promote it." She lectured in the tone that Helena absolutely hated and yet heard quite a lot, though not so much lately. The brunette smirked. "I did my part." She countered smoothly. "I...removed temptation from others." That wasn't washing, so her smirk faded. "Lighten up, Barbara, no one was hurt. It was just a little fun." Now the redhead's frown gathered a little anger behind it. "Fun? Helena, this isn't fun. This is crime and it's wrong."

"It's wrong?" Helena looked a little incredulous that that was all that Barbara could come up with. "You sound like a broken record. 'It's wrong Helena. Don't do this, Helena. We're not supposed to do that, Helena.' Who says? The law? It's not like we're working side by side with them anyway." She had been feeling pretty good, even with how upset she'd known Barbara would be. And that was beginning to fade now. Fuck 'it's wrong.' Who really cared? No one could catch her, she was certain. She hadn't gotten hurt and she hadn't hurt anyone else. It really hadn't been a big deal.

"Broken record or not, you know I'm right on this! You can't go around doing things like this, Helena. We've been over this numerous times!" Barbara was getting more upset now. "You can't just brush it off as a night on the town. This isn't what we do. It isn't who we are!" She knew she'd said the wrong thing as soon as the last words left her mouth and Helena's expression darkened.

"Who we are!?" Helena's eyes flashed as her voice rose. "Who we are!? Who the fuck knows who we are? You don't have the first clue who I really am! You don't have any idea at all the battles I fight every day! Why? Because you're here behind your monitors while I'm out doing the work." And it wasn't just the physical battles either. "All this crime fighting shit might be who you are, but it's not me! You CHOSE it, I didn't. I never got a choice in any of it. Who says it's not my destiny to follow in my mother's footsteps? Who says Catwoman's not alive in me?"

Barbara's eyes widened in shock at the words spat before her. Helena had gotten upset before, but not really like this. She'd known that the pull Helena constantly felt was strong...the pull between good and evil, right and wrong...and she'd known she had to tread carefully with the young woman or lose her completely. She had thought she was getting through. Sure, Helena was rebellious and didn't always - okay, mostly never - did things exactly the way she wanted her to, but still she followed the rules. She fought for the side of good, though it was in her own way. It felt like crashing into the ground after a long leap to think that she'd done no good at all and Helena was going to lose it forever.

"Helena..." She desperately wanted to make it better, to make the younger woman understand why she said and did the things she did. Why she tried to teach her right and wrong, to give her morals that so many didn't possess. But the brunette cut her off fiercly, chopping her hand through the air as if literally cutting her off. "Don't." She hissed. "Don't even start with me again. You don't have to like it, but this is who _I_ am. You never let me decide, never gave me the chance to find out, but I'm taking it now." She was moving toward the elevator, getting ready to leave...

"Helena, no." Barbara was pleading now. She couldn't let her leave, not like this. She was terrified that if Helena left now she would never come back. She wouldn't catch herself from this fall and wouldn't allow Barbara to be there to pick up the pieces. "Please, don't do this." She wheeled her chair closer to the angry tiger before her. "You're right. I didn't let you discover who you are for yourself. I just wanted and always will want what's best for you. If you continue on like this, you'll get hurt or worse. Maybe not physically, but it will destroy you." She took a deep breath and looked up to meet the furious eyes glaring at her. "And me as well. I couldn't stand for anything to happen to you, Helena. I love you."

She watched, hoping that _something_ had gotten through. There were tears in her eyes that she refused to let fall. She held her breath as she waited for some kind of response, anything...And then gasped when Helena seemed to deflate completely. Her shoulders slumped and she seemed to shrink before Barbara's eyes. The angry fire in her eyes went out only to be replaced by...defeat? Barbara really wasn't sure what it was, but she didn't like it either. She hadn't meant to hurt Helena. That was something she would never willngly do, but she wanted her to understand.

"I love you, too." There, she'd said it. It had always been true in one way or another, but Helena wasn't one to get all emotional or reveal her feelings. This was a leap for her. But nothing like the leap she was about to take. She'd said the words because Barbara needed to know. She'd said the words in case she didn't get another chance. And once they were said she was out the door.

"Helena!" Barbara cried out, but she wasn't fast enough. The younger woman was gone. Maybe in more ways than one. The tears began to fall as the walls she'd carefully crafted over so many years crumbled and her world crashed around her. It had started with petty thievery but she had no illusions that it was going to end there, and that there was nothing she could do about it.


End file.
